A friend of mine who happens to be a very big name in the popular natural-health world published a comment recently about red wine that took me by surprise. Particularly because it echoed the same narrow, reductionist view that mainstream biomedical researchers and many doctors typically have.
He said people who are not already wine drinkers shouldn’t start drinking just to get the benefits of resveratrol. Resveratrol, of course, is one of the latest “magic bullets” the biochemically-blinded use to explain the overwhelming health benefits of moderate wine consumption. My friend did correctly point out that to get really high levels of the compound, it is more efficient to simply take a high-quality supplement rather than drink wine… But he missed the vineyard for the grapes by not considering the powerful stress-reducing (not to mention circulatory) benefits that come from the alcohol in wine.
And there’s also the other half of the equation to consider: The mind-body impact of sharing food and drink with family and friends. I’ve always maintained that it’s not just what we eat (and drink), but how, that influences health (as I explained in my report The Top of the Food Chain Cure for Obesity, which you received when you subscribed to Insiders’ Cures). All the ancient health traditions understand that. And I would expect any natural guru or practitioner of complementary and alternative medicine to understand it as well.
Unfortunately, like my friend, many practitioners of natural, alternative, and complementary therapies began their work in natural medicine only after dropping out of mainstream medicine. Of course, such interests were not well tolerated, let alone fostered, by the medical mainstream (and, in many cases, still aren’t). And even today, alternative practitioners don’t get much in the way of formal biomedical training at all. I have a great deal of respect for all those who choose to help others using a natural approach…but natural medicine is medicine after all, not just folklore.
A better understanding of human biology and patho-physiology goes a long way, whether for “natural know-it-alls,” or the mainstream medical minions.